The Highland Council has today (Tuesday 20 November) brought a close to its budget consultation, which has been running for the past three months and has asked for views on where the Council can identify savings of £30 million for the next two years.
Potential savings have ranged from shortening the school day to increasing charges for certain services. There have been 12 public consultation events across the area, meetings with stakeholders groups such as trade unions and Highland Youth Voice and with specific interest groups such as Sight Action and the Highland Users Group. The public have also been able to feed in their views via email, on-line and paper-based surveys and to have their say on the Council’s budget blog. The Council’s Citizens Panel of 2,300 residents have also been asked for their thoughts.
Councillor Dave Fallows, Chairman of the Council’s Finance, Housing and Resources committee who led the budget consultation process, said: “I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone for their views, comments and input. It has been a very valuable process and there is a considerable amount of feedback to now consider. All the comments will be collated, analysed and be considered by Members as part of the budget setting process.”
The Council will consider all the budget savings at a meeting of the Council in February, next year.